Sign in

Laura Secor: Tehran Updates

I just spoke to a trusted Iranian source based in Canada. He tells me that 3,400 Iranian expatriates voted in Ottawa. It took the volunteers there six hours to count those votes. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry in Tehran claims to have counted five million votes before the polls closed in Tehran, and ten million half an hour later.

Also, on Saturday I noted that it looked like the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had been placed under house arrest. But earlier today he appeared at a rally in Tehran. Mousavi has said that he has been under close surveillance and control, and under pressure to accede to the results. His supporters protested today without official permission, which normally would be breathtaking in Iran, given the risks involved, and Mousavi joined them. Reports from the AP suggest that armed men into the crowd, killing one protester and seriously wounding others.

Laura Secor is currently a Ferris Professor of Journalism in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton. Her book, “Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran,” will be out in February.